A closer look
Airplanes today feel polished and routine, but the history of flying reads more like a carnival in the skies. There were cabins hazy with cigarette smoke, pilots steering by constellations as if they were sea captains, and lounges where passengers played piano while cruising above the clouds. Airlines once treated planes like airborne playgrounds, daring to fly everything from cocktail bars to caged zoo animals. Though seatbelts and peanuts may seem dull now, they are the quiet descendants of a bold, wildly experimental era when aviation was part transportation, part spectacle.
